Imagine, for a moment, that the entirety of the England football squad were killed – not just once, but 17x over. It is a horrifying image but one which would generate headlines around the world. You would not be able to avoid hearing about it.
You may not know that the death toll of Palestinian footballers since October 2023 is now at 412. The figures, provided by the Palestinian Football Association (PFA), relate to players at all level, including 103 children, who make up one sub-section of the wider picture: almost 60,000 deaths in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. This includes those killed in air strikes, shootings, and in the grips of a worsening enforced famine.
As those numbers have risen month on month, the response of the international football community has been united – in the main, to completely ignore them.
Suddenly, that is changing, but so late as to become a meaningless, hollow embarrassment. At Wednesday night’s Super Cup between Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain, players lined up alongside a Uefa banner reading: “Stop killing children. Stop killing civilians.”
It is understood the banner was not aimed at any particular conflict but was a nod to Uefa’s Foundation, which aims to improve the lives of children around the world. And when PSG went to lift the trophy, Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin was accompanied by two Palestinian refugee children. Which is a nice gesture, but that is all it is.
Ceferin is the head of an organisation that has taken no sanctions against Israeli clubs or the national team.
Critics point to the precedent set by expelling Russia from its competition following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Uefa would point to the fact the Russia invasion was an unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation, whereas Israel’s assault on Gaza was triggered by the devastating Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023.
Palestinian armed groups still hold 50 hostages, and around 20 of them are thought to still be alive, adding further complexities to how the sporting body should respond.
It should not be permissible for Uefa to separate the sporting from the unfolding human tragedy when it so directly affects their remit. Among the most recent high-profile casualties was the 41-year-old forward Suleiman al-Obeid, survived by a wife and five children.
Khan Yunis Stadium, reduced to rubble by air strikes (Photo: Getty)The PFA says Al-Obeid was shot dead by the Israel Defence Forces while waiting in a queue for aid – another story which might have gone under the radar, were it not for Mohamed Salah responding to a tweet from Uefa’s official social media channels.
“Farewell to Suleiman al-Obeid, the ‘Palestinian Pele’,” Uefa wrote. “A talent who gave hope to countless children, even in the darkest of times.” The same might have been said of the other 411, who did not get a tweet.
Salah, the world’s most high-profile Arab footballer, replied: “Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?”
When Iceland played Israel last year, there was some consternation about whether they wanted to fulfil the fixture, admitted head coach Age Hareide. Following a backlash from Israel’s staff, he later retracted and suggested “we play against players, not the nation of Israel”.
Here is where that logic – that Israeli football is a separate concern, without fault in terms of abiding by international football regulations – falls down.
Mohammed Barakat, a Palestine international killed in an Israeli air strike (Photo: Getty)The Israeli FA, a Uefa member, allows a number of clubs to operate in its leagues while located in illegally occupied Palestinian territory, at Ma’aleh Adumim, Kiryat Arba, Givat Zeev, Bikat Hayarden and Ariel.
A decade of Palestinian FA (PFA) legal challenges have not removed them. The PFA is also embroiled in a case with Fifa, asking Israel to be expelled from international competition, citing the example of Russia who are currently banned from World Cups and European Championships.
An extraordinary Fifa meeting was due to be held on 20 July last year to discuss that bid; it was pushed back to an unspecified date after August 2024, and has still not reached a conclusion after the case was referred to an independent panel.
A legal representative attached to the case told The i Paper last year it was a case of deliberately “kicking it into the long grass”.
Uefa, likewise, have embarked upon a partnership with Doctors Without Borders which will aim to alleviate suffering in Gaza, but also allow Maccabi Haifa into last season’s Europa League and Maccabi Tel Aviv into the Conference League.
They were at least spared a security and diplomatic nightmare because Israel failed to qualify for Euro 2024 – Israel has not reached a major tournament since the 1970 World Cup.
Meanwhile across Gaza and the West Bank, 288 sports facilities – including most of the main stadiums used by the top two divisions of Palestinian football – have been reduced to rubble. Sources on the ground estimate it will take at least a decade to rebuild them. Other grounds are being used as refugee camps; Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza City was briefly used by Israeli forces as a detention and interrogation centre.
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Alongside casualties like Al-Obeid, there are cases such as Mohammed Barakat. In chilling footage, Barakat posted a video of Israeli air strikes hours before he was killed in a bombing of his area. Other footballers have lost limbs, or in the very best case scenarios had to halt their career due to the suspension of all sporting activity.
Such cases may increasingly struggle to attract attention now that more journalists have been killed (242, per the UN), than in the First and Second World Wars, Vietnam, Afghanistan and the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s combined.
You might not hear many of those stories in detail, but nor are you likely to hear of any action being taken against it from the football authorities. But at least there was a banner.
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